FUNDAMENTALS OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Nov 25, 2015
FUNDAMENTALS OF LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION SCIENCE
FUNDAMENTALS OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ABDULWAHAB OLANREWAJU ISSA, Ph.D. PRINCIPAL LECTURER,
DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE,
THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, OFFA,
KWARA STATE
First published in 2009 by
(C) 2009 Abdulwahab O. Issa
All Rights Reserved
This book may not be reproduced in part or in full, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise (except for quotations in critical articles, or reviews) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN:
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
ISSA, Abdulwahab O. Fundamentals of Library and Information Science/ Abdulwahab O. Issa.
Ilorin Publisher, 2009. iv, 101p. Includes bibliography and index. ISBN
DEDICATION
To the Almighty God
For His love, guidance and abundant blessings
And
To the memories of my late father and late uncle
For what they both meant to me.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
FOREWARD
PREFACE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgements.
Foreword.
Preface.
CHAPTER ONE: THE MEANING, NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIBRARY Introduction.
The Issues.
Towards a Definition
Now a Definition Attempted
CHAPTER TWO: LIBRARY HISTORY Briefs on Library History..
CHAPTER THREE: BOOKMAKING HISTORY Briefs on Bookmaking History..
Famous Libraries in History..
CHAPTER FOUR: CARNEGIE CORPORATIONS LIBRARY PROGRAMMES The Briefs..
CHAPTER FIVE: THE LIBRARY AND THE BOOK: A RELATIONSHIP ESTABLISHED Introduction
The Issues
Purposes of the Book..
The Significance of the Library..
CHAPTER SIX: THE BOOK AND ITS IMPORTANCE Earliest Forms of Writing
Definition of a Book Attempted.
The Importance of the Book
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A LIBRARY The Concept of a System.
The Library System..
The Library and its Personnel..
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE DIFFERENT FEATURES OF THE LIBRARIAN Introduction
The Librarian as a Generalist..
The Librarian as a Specialist
The Librarian as an Information Scientist
The Librarian as a Person.
CHAPTER NINE: CATEGORIES OF LIBRARY COLLECTIONS Introduction.
Library Collections..
CHAPTER TEN: THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIBRARIES Introduction.
Libraries and their Types.
The Public Libraries
The School Libraries
The Academic Libraries..
The Research Libraries
The National Libraries.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: NEW TRENDS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE PRACTICE Introduction.
The Trends.
CHAPTER TWELVE: IMPLICATIONS OF THE TRENDS FOR LIBRARY SERVICES DELIVERY Introduction..
The Implications..
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE PLACE OF THE LIBRARY IN THE INTERNET AGE: THE MYTH AND REALITY Introduction
The Myth and Reality.
CHAPTER ONE
THE MEANING, NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIBRARY
Introduction
The term library means different things to different people depending on
where they stand on the enlightenment spectrum. To some, it is a bookstore; a
building where books are kept for safe custody over-seen by a stern-looking
watchman in the name of a librarian, essentially ensuring that the books are not
tampered with unduly. To many, the library is a place of reading and studying;
where examination-writing candidates make their second homes to read their
textbooks and notebooks in preparation. This explains why many libraries have
seasonal uses as their patrons have a well-known pattern of visits and usage, which
are at the designated examination periods. Only a few others conceive of the
library as an organization of information resources meant for use.
The Issues
The above perceptions underpin the justification for a variety of definitions
of the library by different people. The answer to such question as what is a
library may seem quite simple and straight-forward to provide; since many would
quickly jump to the conclusion a room or building where books are kept, a
reading room, a store-house of books etc. Even though these conceptions of a
library are not completely wrong in themselves, they however provide the
foundations upon which the highly misrepresented and misconceived idea of what
a library truly is was laid. Even the Librarian Glossary was not spared of this
tendency in defining a library as a collection of books and other literary materials
kept for reading, study and consultation, a place, building, room or rooms set
apart for the keeping and use of a collection of books.1
Incidentally, there is an historical antecedent to this line of conception of
what a library is. Evidence of this can be readily found in the Oxford English
Dictionary, which affirmed that the word library has been used in English in the
sense of being a place where books were kept for reading, study, or reference
since 1374. By the 19th Century, the understanding metamorphosed into a
building, room, or set of rooms containing a collection of books for the use of the
public or some portion of it, or the members of society; a public institution or
establishment charged with the care of a collection of books.2 Then, as time went
by, additional concepts of circulation and administration featured in the
definition of a library.
No doubt therefore that the concept library has long been established in our
language, and the more reason for the age-long misconceptions about the true
nature of the library, which is essentially dynamic (thus, ever-changing); and for
which those definitions, though correct to some extent, are no longer sacrosanct in
the face of an avalanche of new additions to the world of the library and the
librarianship profession today. These new additions have impacted tremendously
on the nature of the modern-day library; thereby rendering those either definitions
inadequate for capturing the true essence of what a typical library has come to
represent. Hence, the need for a re-examination of the concept towards a re-
definition that will reflect the emerging trends.
Towards a Re-definition
Granted that a great number of authors point at the fact that the term
library derives from the Latin word Liber (i.e. book); equating the library with
an assemblage of books in a room or as a bookstore; as others would conceive of it,
have remained largely untenable. Superficially taken, there can be equivalence;
especially if such a purpose was to establish an historical perspective to the issue.
As such, the idea remained ever-relevant in that context. But the need for
advancement from an historical perspective was long over-due; as we needed to
rise above our inability to conceive of the book in its most widely generic sense.
The huge confirmation of the position is evidently rooted in the fact that:
the library is older than the book as we now know it,
older than paper, older than print. It extends back to the
scrolls, papyri, and clay tablets that appear near the dawn
of writing-back to ancient Mesopotamia and Egyptian
civilization.3
From the above, it becomes clear that the book in its multi-dimension of
variants had always occupied a centre-stage in the business of all the libraries that
have existed. As much as this assertion remains incontrovertible, it is certainly not
in the rather cheap sense of taking the book to mean the printed pages as they are
known to us today alone. Otherwise, it will remain substantially difficult to arrive
at a better conception and representation of the idea of a library.
There is yet another angle to the issue which needed to be addressed for a
good starting-point to be established, which is the perception of a library as a
bookstore or a place where books are kept for their safety mainly. While not
disputing the age-long custodianship responsibility of the library and the librarian
towards the effective safe-keep of the library material contents, the situation
whereby such a responsibility was positioned to sub-merge the functionality of the
librarys materials (typified in their use), remained absolutely contentious.
Probably in anticipation of the occurrence of this rather distorted perception,
Ranganathan, in his Five Laws of Library Science, posited books are for use as
his very first. By this First Law emphasizing use, Ranganathan has super-imposed
the use (i.e. service) aspect of the librarys responsibility/function above all others,
more than anything else.
Emerging from the above background, one can therefore not but agree with
the well-informed declaration made by Shera to the effect that an assembly of
books is not a library, nor is a library only a place where books are kept.5 These
two parameters, though popular and commonly used in establishing what a library
is, have become inadequate to capture the real essence of a library. This is the point
driven home by Sharr in the opening remarks to his famous report when he
unequivocally declared that a library is not a building as such, any more than a
hospital is a building. A quantity of books is not a library any more than a quantity
of drugs is a hospital.6
These proclamations have profound significance in more than just one
regard. On the one hand, they represent an authentic declaration as to what the
library is not; given the two explicit allusions, which are self-explanatory in
themselves. This is important because they are good ways of taking our minds
away from what the library is not; having, in the process, enriched our
understanding. On the other hand however, they serve as the corollary by pointing,
quite fundamentally, at a good start to exploring a sound understanding of what
truly a library is or should be.
Now a Re-Definition Attempted
Deriving from our enriched knowledge of what the library is not, as
postulated in the foregoing, one ought to have been thoroughly prepared for a good
understanding of what a library actually is. The approach to be used in the
presentation of this segment will be a review of relevant and useful definitions by
some authorities in the subject areas. Olanipekun and Ifabiyi once described the
library as a collection of information materials such as films, magazines, maps,
manuscripts and phonograph records) made available for use7. The phrase for
use in the definition is of great import as books and other information materials
brought together for other purposes do not necessary constitute a library. This is
to emphasize the need for underscoring use as of a high premium to the
collection of information materials to be found in the library contrary to other such
collections as could be found elsewhere. Thus, the library is defined as the
repository, lender, acquirer and borrower of organized information with the most
emphases being on prepackaged information for ready access and delivery to users.
Furthermore, Sheras definition of a library as an organization, a system
designed to preserve and facilitate the use of graphic records8 is also very
instructive. The points of note in this definition are the terms organization and a
system; both of which imply elements of co-ordination of inter-related units/parts-
all of which are geared towards same ends. The ends to which the organization
or system would be targeted are preservation and facilitation of the use of
graphic records. Thus, the system here is expected to evolve devices with which
information materials could be presented and facilitated for use. The term graphic
records used-this definition should be understood from an all-inclusive
perspective covering all kinds of formats of communication media from the past to
the present and even the future.
Thus, this definition does not delimit as to what particular kinds of material
are to be found in a library. Also in line with the first definition, this also
emphasizes use as a critical component of what constitutes a library. Even more
elaborate and explicit is the approach adopted by Sharr in defining a library as an
organization of one or more trained people who use carefully selected and
organized books, periodicals and other familiar materials as a means of giving to
those who may appropriately use it, to the fullest extent of their needs or desires,
the information, enrichment and delight which is to be had from the written
words.9
A careful look at this definition reveals that not only did it also underscores
the use component but went further to touch on library professional personnel,
duties and responsibilities, among others. This organization, as far as Sharr was
concerned, comprises one or more trained people (referring to professional
personnel), whose material stocks have been carefully selected, (acquired) and
organized. Then is the variety of information materials to be found in the library
ranging from books, periodicals and other familiar materials (i.e. unlimited and
unrestricted in coverage). Lastly is the multitude of uses to which these
information materials are put by all categories of users namely; for meeting
needs or desires, the information, enrichment or delight, which are derivable from
such uses generally.
Similarly, Aguolu, in yet a functional approach to the subject, defined a
library as collection of records of human culture in diverse formats and languages,
preserved organized and interpreted to meet broad and varying needs of individuals
for information, knowledge, recreation and aesthetic enjoyment.10 As the one just
before it, this definition essentially points at the functional ingredients of a library
as they are geared towards spelling out the fundamental responsibilities of a
library.
From the foregoing therefore, it is apparent the term library is in almost
everybodys vocabulary and an institution, which is a part of almost everybodys
experience. However, the meanings that the individuals bring to it depend largely
upon the nature and extent of their experiences. Thus, the library has been
frequently referred to, albeit variously, as the heart of the institution, the mind
of society the only effective repository of ... the racial memory;11 a live
depository of the cultural past and sustainer of the intellectual activity that
anticipates the future.12
Evidently, the library is the only agency devoted solely to the purpose of
collecting, preserving, making available, transmitting and securing the widest and
most effective use of the records of civilization by the society of which it is a part.
Fundamentally however, the library, on its own and all by itself, cannot carry out
these functions. This is because, the library is essentially a human enterprise and
like all such enterprises, it must depend ultimately upon the skilled minds and
talents of librarians for it to perform its proper role in our ever-changing society.13
Finally, possible interpretation and of the above definitions in a number of
ways demands that they are all taken together in the following ways:
1. That a library is a social instrument created to form a link in the
communication system that is to any society or culture. In other words,
communication should be seen as so indispensable that without it, there can
hardly be a society.
2. Even more so is that without some form of graphic records and a means for
their preservation, no culture can possibly endure.
3. In conclusion, it becomes apparent that from time to time, the library may
assume certain marginal functions, even though its basic purpose remain
generically the same, which is, serving as a link in the communication chain
that is concerned with the custody of recorded knowledge.
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWO
LIBRARY HISTORY
Briefs on Library History
The first libraries were only partly libraries, being composed for the most
part of unpublished records, which are usually viewed as archives, not libraries.
Archaeological findings from the ancient city-states of Sumer have revealed
temple rooms full of clay tablets in cuneiform script. These archives were made up
almost completely of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, with
only a few documents touching theological matters, historical records or legends.
Things were much the same in the government and temple records on papyrus of
Ancient Egypt.
The earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit; besides
correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized
practice-texts for teaching new scribes. Private or personal libraries made up of
non-fiction and fiction books (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept
in archives) first appeared in classical Greece. The first ones appeared some time
near the 5th century BC. The celebrated book collectors of Hellenistic Antiquity
were listed in the late second century in Deipnosophistae:[1]
Polycrates of Samos and Pisistratus who was tyrant of Athens, and Euclides
who was himself also an Athenian[2] and Nicorrates of Samos and even the kings of
Pergamos, and Euripides the poet and Aristotle the philosopher, and Nelius his
librarian; from whom they say our countryman[3] Ptolemus, surnamed
Philadelphus, bought them all, and transported them, with all those which he had
collected at Athens and at Rhodes to his own beautiful Alexandria.[4] All these
libraries were Greek; the cultivated Hellenized diners in Deipnosophistae pass over
the libraries of Rome in silence. At the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum,
apparently the villa of Caesar's father-in-law, the Greek library has been partly
preserved in volcanic ash; archaeologists speculate that a Latin library, kept
separate from the Greek one, may await discovery at the site.
Libraries were filled with parchment scrolls as at Pergamum and on papyrus
scrolls as at Alexandria: export of prepared writing materials was a staple of
commerce. There were a few institutional or royal libraries like the Library of
Alexandria which were open to an educated public, but on the whole collections
were private. In those rare cases where it was possible for a scholar to consult
library books there seems to have been no direct access to the stacks. In all
recorded cases the books were kept in a relatively small room where the staff went
to get them for the readers, who had to consult them in an adjoining hall or covered
walkway.
Little is known about early Chinese libraries, save what is written about the
imperial library which began with the Qin Dynasty. One of the curators of the
imperial library in the Han Dynasty is believed to have been the first to establish a
library classification system and the first book notation system. At this time the
library catalog was written on scrolls of fine silk and stored in silk bags. There is
also evidence of those libraries at Nippur of about 1900 B.C. and those at Nineveh
of about 700 B.C. as showing a library classification system.[5]
In Persia, many libraries were established by the Zoroastrian elite and the
Persian Kings. Among the first ones was a royal library in Isfahan. One of the most
important public libraries established around 667 AD in south-western Iran was the
Library of Gundishapur. It was a part of a bigger scientific complex located at the
Academy of Gundishapur. In the West, the first public libraries were established
under the Roman Empire as each succeeding emperor strove to open one or many
which outshone that of his predecessor.
Unlike the Greek libraries, readers had direct access to the scrolls, which
were kept on shelves built into the walls of a large room. Reading or copying was
normally done in the room itself. The surviving records give only a few instances
of lending features. As a rule Roman public libraries were bilingual: they had a
Latin room and a Greek room. Most of the large Roman baths were also cultural
centers, built from the start with a library, with the usual two room arrangement for
Greek and Latin texts.
In the sixth century, at the very close of the Classical period, the great
libraries of the Mediterranean world remained those of Constantinople and
Alexandria. Cassiodorus, minister to Theodoric, established a monastery at
Vivarium in the heel of Italy with a library where he attempted to bring Greek
learning to Latin readers and preserve texts both sacred and secular for future
generations. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus not only collected as many
manuscripts as he could, he also wrote treatises aimed at instructing his monks in
the proper uses of reading and methods for copying texts accurately. In the end,
however, the library at Vivarium was dispersed and lost within a century.
Elsewhere in the Early Middle Ages, after the fall of the Western Roman
Empire and before the rise of the large Western Christian monastery libraries
beginning at Montecassino, libraries were found in scattered places in the Christian
Middle East. Upon the rise of Islam, libraries in newly Islamic lands knew a brief
period of expansion in the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and Spain. Like the
Christian libraries, they mostly contained books which were made of paper, and
took a codex or modern form instead of scrolls; they could be found in mosques,
private homes, and universities.
Some mosques sponsored public libraries. Ibn al-Nadim's bibliography
Fihrist demonstrates the devotion of medieval Muslim scholars to books and
reliable sources; it contains a description of thousands of books circulating in the
Islamic world circa 1000, including an entire section for books about the doctrines
of other religions. Unfortunately, modern Islamic libraries for the most part do not
hold these antique books; many were lost, destroyed by Mongols, or removed to
European libraries and museums during the colonial period.[6]
By the 8th century first Iranians and then Arabs had imported the craft of
paper making from China, with a mill already at work in Baghdad in 794. By the
9th century completely public libraries started to appear in many Islamic cities.
They were called "halls of Science" or dar al-'ilm. They were each endowed by
Islamic sects with the purpose of representing their tenets as well as promoting the
dissemination of secular knowledge. The libraries often employed translators and
copyists in large numbers, in order to render into Arabic the bulk of the available
Persian, Greek and Roman non-fiction and the classics of literature.
This flowering of Islamic learning ceased after a few centuries as the Islamic
world began to turn against experimentation and learning. After a few centuries
many of these libraries were destroyed by Mongolian invasion. Others were victim
of wars and religious strife in the Islamic world. However, a few examples of these
medieval libraries, such as the libraries of Chinguetti in West Africa, remain intact
and relatively unchanged even today. Another ancient library from this period
which is still operational and expanding is the Central Library of Astan Quds
Razavi in the Iranian city of Mashhad, which has been operating for more than six
centuries.
The contents of these Islamic libraries were copied by Christian monks in
Muslim/Christian border areas, particularly Spain and Sicily. From there they
eventually made their way into other parts of Christian Europe. These copies
joined works that had been preserved directly by Christian monks from Greek and
Roman originals, as well as copies Western Christian monks made of Byzantine
works. The resulting conglomerate libraries are the basis of every modern library
today.
Medieval library design reflected the fact that these manuscripts--created via
the labor-intensive process of hand copying--were valuable possessions. Library
architecture developed in response to the need for security. Librarians often
chained books to lecterns, armaria (wooden chests), or shelves, in well-lit rooms.
Despite this protectiveness, many libraries were willing to lend their books if
provided with security deposits (usually money or a book of equal value).
Monastic libraries lent and borrowed books from each other frequently and lending
policy was often theologically grounded.
For example, the Franciscan monasteries loaned books to each other without
a security deposit since according to their vow of poverty only the entire order
could own property. In 1212 the council of Paris condemned those monasteries that
still forbade loaning books, reminding them that lending is "one of the chief works
of mercy." [7]
The earliest example in England of a library to be endowed for the benefit of
users who were not members of an institution such as a cathedral or college was
the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, Lincolnshire, established in
1598. The library still exists and can justifiably claim to be the forerunner of later
public library systems. The early libraries located in monastic cloisters and
associated with scriptoria were collections of lecterns with books chained to them.
Shelves built above and between back-to-back lecterns were the beginning of
book-presses.
The chain was attached at the fore-edge of a book rather than to its spine.
Book presses came to be arranged in carrels (perpendicular to the walls and
therefore to the windows) in order to maximize lighting, with low bookcases in
front of the windows. This stall system (fixed bookcases perpendicular to exterior
walls pierced by closely spaced windows) was characteristic of English
institutional libraries. In Continental libraries, bookcases were arranged parallel to
and against the walls. This wall system was first introduced on a large scale in
Spain's El Escorial.
As books became more common, the need for chaining them lessened. But
as the number of books in libraries increased, so did the need for compact storage
and access with adequate lighting, giving birth to the stack system, which involved
keeping a library's collection of books in a space separate from the reading room,
an arrangement which arose in the 19th century. Book stacks quickly evolved into
a fairly standard form in which the cast iron and steel frameworks supporting the
bookshelves also supported the floors, which often were built of translucent blocks
to permit the passage of light (but were not transparent, for reasons of modesty).
With the introduction of electrical lighting, it had a huge impact on how the library
operated.
Also, the use of glass floors was largely discontinued, though floors were
still often composed of metal grating to allow air to circulate in multi-story stacks.
Ultimately, even more space was needed, and a method of moving shelves on
tracks (compact shelving) was introduced to cut down on otherwise wasted aisle
space. Also, the governments of most major countries support national libraries.
Three noteworthy examples are the U.S. Library of Congress, Canada's Library
and Archives Canada, and the British Library. A typically broad sample of libraries
in one state in the U.S. can be explored at Every Library in Illinois.
Libraries almost invariably contain long aisles with rows and rows and rows
of books. Libraries have materials arranged in a specified order according to a
library classification system, so that items may be located quickly and collections
may be browsed efficiently. Some libraries have additional galleries beyond the
public ones, where reference materials are stored. These reference stacks may be
open to selected members of the public. Others require patrons to submit a "stack
request," which is a request for an assistant to retrieve the material from the closed
stacks.
REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE
BOOKMAKING HISTORY
Briefs on Bookmaking History
Mankind has made books in some form for almost as long as there has been
the written word. The books may look very different from todays books, but they
served the same purpose-to record the everyday workings of civilization and to
preserve its legacy. One of the earliest known books is the clay tablets of the
Babylonian sand Assyrians. They were written in cuneiform-wedge-shaped
characters-on the clay. They were often stored in clay envelopes that protected
the tablets much as a modern library book cover does today. Even then, there were
libraries full of clay books. The Royal Library of Nineveh-capital of the ancient
empire of the Assyrians-contained thousands of clay books on every subject from
astronomy to recipes to love poems to legends.
The papyrus scroll was made by ancient Egyptians from the aquatic, reed-
like plant Cyprus papyrus that grew along the banks of the Nile River. The stems
were cut into thin strips and laid next to each other, one slightly overlapping the
next. Another layer was placed on top, perpendicular to the first. These were
lightly pounded to bind them together. Since the sheets were small, several were
glued together end-to-end to form a scroll. The scroll was then wound around a
wooden stick. The Egyptians wrote their hieroglyphics with a length of reed cut
into a pen. One of the oldest papyrus scrolls dates from 2500 BC.
Since the brittle nature of papyrus did not lend itself to being folded, animal
skins helped the move toward the codex form (our modern style) of the book. The
use of animal skins as a writing surface has been noted as far back as 500 BC until
the appearance of good parchment in the 1st or 2nd century AD. Parchment was
also used in scroll form, but could bend without cracking and was quickly adapted
into the more convenient codex form.
The Romans used wax tablets. These books were made of pieces of wood
with a slight hollow carver in them to hold a layer of blackened wax. They wrote
by making indentations with an iron stylus (similar to our pencil) and erased by
rubbing out the words with the flattened end o the stylus or their finger. Mainly
used for business transaction, several of them could be strung together to make
something similar to our three-ring binders. Children also used them for their
school lessons. Another interesting form is the leaf book. Palm leaves were
trimmed to size and the letters were cut into the leaf. Charcoal was rubbed onto the
letters to darken their outlines and several leaves were strung together to make a
book.
Between the 5th and 11th centuries, the decoration of books was mostly
done with precious jewels, carved ivory and gold. The Copts of Alexandria, Egypt
decorated their leather bindings with lines and dots made with metal punches. In
the 12th century, leather tooling became very popular in England. Designs and
ornamentation were stamped into the leather. In the 15th century, gold tooling was
introduced by Italian and French craftsmen working under the influences of the
Arabs of Morocco. Thin pieces of gold were laid on the leather with some adhesive
and the design was pressed into the leather. In the 16th century, embroidered fabric
became popular and Queen Elizabeth I was said to have embroidered cloth for
book covers. Silks, velvet, seed pearls, silver and gold threads were all used to
make the beautiful covers.
With the invention of the printing press, movable type and the introduction
of paper to the West, the nature of bookbinding changed. More books were
produced and the binder had to find new, faster methods to bind and decorate
them. In 1861, David Smyth invented a book sewing machine. While the trend of
mechanized binding continues today, there are still craftspeople who bind books by
hand and much of modern hand book-binding owes a great debt to the 19th century
Arts and Crafts movement.18
Some Famous Libraries in History
Some of the greatest libraries in the world are research libraries. The most
famous ones include The Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York
Public Library in New York City, the Russian National Library in St Petersburg,
the British Library in London, Bibliothque nationale de France in Paris, and the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C..
1. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh, founded between 669-631 BC.
2. Egypt's Library of Alexandria (founded in 3rd century BC) and modern
Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
3. Baghdad's House of Wisdom, founded in 8th century AD.
4. Islamic Spain's library of Cordoba, founded in 9th century.
5. Egypt's library of Cairo, founded in 10th century.
6. Tripoli's Dar il-'ilm, destroyed in 1109.
7. Ambrosian Library in Milan opened to the public, December 8, 1609.
8. Bibliothque Nationale de France (BNF) in Paris, 1720.
9. Boston Public Library in Boston, 1826.
10. Bodleian Library at University of Oxford 1602, books collection begin around
1252.
11. British Library in London created in 1973 by the British Library Act of 1972.
12. British Library of Political and Economic Science in London, 1896.
13. Butler Library at Columbia University, 1934
14. Cambridge University Library at University of Cambridge, 1931.
15. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, 1895.
16. Carolina Rediviva at Uppsala University, 1841
17. Dutch Royal Library in The Hague, 1798
18. The European Library, 2004
19. Firestone Library at Princeton University, 1948
20. Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (largest in the Southern
Hemisphere), 1908
21. Franklin Public Library in Franklin, Massachusetts (the first public library in
the U.S.; original books donated by Benjamin Franklin in 1731)
22. Free Library of Philadelphia in Philadelphia established February 18, 1891.
23. Garrison Library in Gibraltar, 1793.
24. Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, 1924, probably the
largest single-building university library in the world.
25. House of Commons Library, Westminster, London. Established 1818.
26. Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia founded 1802.
27. Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, Israel, 1892.
28. John Rylands Library in Manchester 1972.
29. Leiden University Library at Leiden University in Leiden began at 1575 with
confiscated monastery books. Officially open in October 31, 1587.
30. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. 1800.
31. Library of Sir Thomas Browne, 1711
32. Mitchell Library in Glasgow (Europe's largest public reference library)
33. National Library of Belarus in Minsk, 2006.
34. National Library of Australia in Canberra, Australia
35. National Library of Ireland, Dublin
36. New York Public Library in New York
37. Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal,
Canada
38. Sassanid's ancient Library of Gondishapur around 489.
39. National Library of Iran, 1937.
40. Powell Library at UCLA, part of the UCLA Library.
41. Russian State Library in Moscow, 1862.
42. Royal Library in Copenhagen, 1793.
43. Seattle Central Library
44. Staatsbibliothek in Berlin
45. State Library of Victoria in Melbourne
46. Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, 1931.
47. Vatican Library in Vatican City, 1448 (but existed before).
48. Widener Library at Harvard University (Harvard University Library including
all branches has the largest academic collection overall.)
49. The St. Phillips Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in
Charleston, South Carolina, was the first public lending library in the
American Colonies.
50. Boston Public Library, an early public lending library in America, was
established in 1848.
51. Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the Canada-US
border.
52. St. Marys Church, Reigate, Surrey houses the first public lending library in
England. Opened 14 March 1701.
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOUR
BRIEFS ON THE CARNEGIE CORPORATIONS LIBRARY
PROGRAMMES
The Briefs
Andrew Carnegie established more than 20 organizations in the U.S. and
abroad dedicated to philanthropy, promoting international peace, rewarding
selfless heroism and pursuing other goals aimed at improving peoples lives across
the globe. To many however, his name is still synonymous with creating libraries.
Beginning in 1886, Carnegie, and later Carnegie Corporation, in its early years,
collectively spent $56 million to create 1,681 public libraries in nearly all U.S.
communities and 828 libraries in other parts of the world.
Carnegie Corporation of New York, as it was later known, inherited its
interest in libraries from its founder and president from its establishment in 1911
until 1919, the year of his death, and who initiated a library program at the
foundation. During the early years, the program emphasized the construction of
new library buildings across the country; between 1918 and 1925. Although the
Corporation continued to make some grants for library development, its efforts
were primarily devoted to appraisal and evaluation of its library program until
then.
Beginning in 1926, the Corporation embarked on a large-scale expansion of
its library-related efforts, aimed mainly at strengthening the library profession, but
also at the enhancement of central services. For these programs, the Corporation
spent an average of about $830,000 a year until 1941. Rural library services were
greatly enhanced under Corporation grants in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in
the South. As to academic libraries, between 1930 and 1943, the Corporation
appropriated nearly $2.5 million to more than 200 liberal arts colleges in a series of
grants for library development and services and for the purchase of books for
undergraduate reading.
Although the Corporations charter permitted it to make grants in the
countries that are now known as the former British Commonwealth, it did not
extend its library interests, except for public library buildings, beyond the Western
Hemisphere until 1928, when, coinciding with the Corporations initiation of
grants to countries in Africa, it began promoting the concept of free library
services in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of Corporation funds went to the
Central State Library of South Africa, which stimulated the development of free
library services throughout the four provinces that made up the South Africa Union
at that time. Substantial grants also went for the development of libraries and the
purchase of books and training in Gambia, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda
and other Commonwealth countries.
After World War II, grants for library purposes received a decreasing share
of the Corporations funds, except in Africa. More emphasis was placed on grants
for central services provided by the American Library Association, the Association
of Research Libraries, the Library of Congress and other organizations and for new
technologies and equipment aimed at facilitating library use. In the past 25 years,
the Corporation has not had a program of support for domestic libraries, with the
exception of a few grants for specific purposes. With the reassessment of
Corporation strategies under its current president, Vartan Gregorian, who was
previously president of the New York Public Library in the 1990s, the Corporation
decided to reform its International Development Program and support the
revitalization of universities and libraries in Africa.
The foundations most recent library-related efforts have focused on sub-
Saharan Africa with the goal of developing national libraries, revitalizing selected
public libraries and consolidating the development of university libraries in
countries and institutions that have strategic intervention programs funded by the
Corporation. The public library revitalization program supports the development
of selected public libraries in order to create model centers of excellence that help
their system lobby for greater resources and public support of library services.
Based on criteria such as relevance to the country and community, types of library
services provided and strength of leadership, the Corporation, to date, has provided
support to public library systems in Kenya, Botswana and South Africa.
In addition to its library program in Africa, the Corporation-while not
maintaining a program of support for U.S. libraries-has continued to make special-
initiative grants to domestic public libraries in recent years. Some highlights
include: in 1999, the Corporation awarded $15 million to promote literacy services
to children and adolescents, preservation and special collections at The New York
Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Borough Public Library and
libraries in 22 other cities serving large, culturally diverse populations. The grants
commemorated the centennial period of Andrew Carnegies gifts to establish
public libraries in New York City and more than 1,350 other communities across
America. Almost all of the grant recipients were originally funded by Andrew
Carnegie between 1899 and 1906. All were chosen according to the size and
diversity of population served, geographic spread and/or historical relationship to
Andrew Carnegie, according to Corporation president Vartan Gregorian.
In May 2003, the Corporation made a $4.5 million grant to support the book
collection at The New York Public Library and at the Brooklyn and Queens
libraries in memory of those who lost their lives on September 11th. It was the
second award made as part of the Corporations $10 million pledge to support the
unmet needs of the communities in New York and Washington, D.C. following the
terrorist attacks. Each book purchased through this challenge fund will have a
bookplate commemorating those who died in the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon on September 11th, so that years from now, new readers will not forget
the sacrifice made by so many in the name of Americas freedom, values and way
of life. These grants were also made as a challenge to other funders with the hope
that they will contribute to libraries and other New York City institutions and serve
as a catalyst for other public-private partnerships.
In June 2003, along with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Corporation made a one-
time contribution to the Laura Bush Foundation for Americas Libraries for its
administration costs. The mission of the Laura Bush Foundation is to support the
education of the nations children by providing funds to update, extend and
diversify the book and print collections of Americas school libraries.
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FIVE
THE LIBRARY AND THE BOOK: A RELATIONSHIP ESTABLISHED
Introduction
It goes almost without saying that the primary concern of the library, right
from the very beginning, has been the communication of knowledge, ideas and
thoughts from one person, group of persons or generation to the other. Even so it is
for the book, which originated as a sort solution to the social problem that storing
and transmitting information from one person, culture or geography to another
became in the ancient word. That was the time when the only key instrument for
information storing and transmitting was the human memory with its attendant
shortcomings. Thus, there is a parallel between the library and the book as both
served as information storage and transmitter.
But then, the knowledge, ideas, information and thoughts, which the library
seeks to store and transmit are essentially intangibles which could not be handled
unless they are encoded and embodied. Consequent upon this, it is only expected
that they find embodiment in such physical objects as book and other non-book
formats. Our inability to rise above the challenge of distinguishing between the
physical object and the intellectual content, which is the reality, probably
accounted for the equation of libraries with books.
The Issues
The critical issue here is that a book, by itself, is no more than a physical
representation of the authors thoughts and ideas, just as its utility varies from one
reader to the other, especially regarding what the individuals bring to it in
understanding. Considering its three cardinal functions throughout history namely:
to collect, preserve and make-available, it becomes abundantly clear that the
library had served as an essential instrument for the maximum realization of the
great benefits of the book as all other materials that have been used before it. This
does not, in any way whatsoever, rub off the great significance of an individual
book, scroll or codex as the case may be, in itself.
The argument simply, is that to realize its full benefits, such a medium must
be a part of a well-selected aggregate of books. Once a part of the library
collections, the user is immediately with an unlimited power, through the
unrestricted access that the book allows for pursuing to its depth, a study of ones
choice. This way, a user possibly gets translated into whatever time and place of
his wish as he ceases to be a servant of a given view or the prisoner of a single
dogma, but master over an empire of knowledge. Thus, it is undeniable that a
library of a thousand books brought together serves a function different from and
far greater than any that can be served by a thousand volumes in separate places.1
Purposes of the Book
Incidentally, books have been found to endure the way most other works of
man could not. Not only have they served as a veritable tool for communicating
ideas, knowledge and information from one generation to the other as does the
library, they have also served a number of purposes some of which include that
they:
1. Provide the union of understanding that links the generations.
2. Enable us share human experience down through time.
3. Allow us cast our vision of life.
4. Enable us forge out a future we shall not see.
However, to realize all these, the indispensable role of the library comes to
the fore as it again serves as the essential instrument for giving reality to the
potentials of books for immortality. By this, we mean that the library, more than
any instrument of society, opens to public use, the treasury embedded in books.
Furthermore, it can be gleaned from the above that without libraries, perhaps only
the rich and the wealthy would be availed exclusive access to a wide range of
books. Even at that, it is significant to note that the most that any man of great
wealth will be able to command can only amount to just a fraction of the
intellectual riches open to any user of a reasonably good library.2
Thus, in general, libraries are said to have come into existence primarily, in
response to societys need for an agency to:
1. Preserve and make widely accessible the records of human experience.
2. Stimulate thoughtful people everywhere to come up with positive insights
and values from the past and to assimilate them into the new order.
3. Identify relationships in this fast-changing world.
4. Maintain the records of new ideas, technologies and values, so that
individuals and institutions can perceive and then control the direction of
change as it relates to each persons particular life experience.3
The Significance of the Library
People are what a library is all about. A library serves all who use it and
reaches out to all who do not or cannot. That is what the materials in a library, and
the people who work there, are for. It is common for a public library to have story
hours for children, including preschoolers. There are also picture books for them to
page through, filmstrips and films to watch, and records to listen to. Children can
see an exhibit of dolls or mobiles, watch a puppet show, or take part in an art
contest. Some public libraries even have educational toys to play with and to take
home. Tables, chairs, and shelves in a children's department are built to smaller
and more convenient scale. Children's librarians introduce children's books to
parents and help children choose books that are right for them. Sometimes
storytellers are sent out into a community, and children in some places can call on
the telephone to have a story read to them.
For those attending school, there is the school as well as the public library.
Books and-where these are available-records, even cassettes and cassette players,
can be taken home. Study booths and tables allow youngsters to work alone or in
groups. Screening rooms in some libraries are for viewing of films, filmstrips, and
videotapes. For sound tapes and records there are usually special listening areas.
Both school and public librarians teach students how to use a library.
From secondary school on, young people are served by many kinds of
libraries. Public libraries may have young adult sections with books and other
materials of interest to young people. Young adult librarians plan film programs,
pottery or karate workshops, and discussions on topics that concern the young in
that particular community. In a few school and academic libraries, a student can
dial to get a foreign language lesson or hear a lecture that has been stored in an
information retrieval bank.
Research libraries, when not part of a university, usually do not loan their
materials. But all types of materials can be checked out of many other libraries.
What cannot be checked out can often be borrowed through interlibrary loan or
photocopied-many libraries have photocopy machines, or copiers, for people to
use. There may also be machines called microfilm, micro-card, and microfiche
readers. With these, a person can read books, magazines, and newspapers that have
been photographed and much reduced in size.
Adults, too, are served by many kinds of libraries. Film programs and
discussion groups, concerts and plays held in library auditoriums, and art
exhibitions often are planned. In many places, women's groups, business
management groups, labour groups, and others can request materials and
conference rooms for meetings. Librarians provide materials and guidance on
recreation, income tax, travel, health, and retirement. Adults who do not speak the
language of the country well or who have little schooling can attend special
programmes at public libraries. Public librarians also reach out with books and
services to such places as schools, nursing homes for the elderly, jails, factories,
union halls, and housing projects. In special libraries, librarians not only find
information for company workers but often summarize it for them.
For people of all ages, there are librarians specially trained to answer
questions or help people get materials. There are also reference books such as
encyclopedias to use in finding information without help. Finding out is easier for
people interested in special subjects because library collections are arranged by
subject. Library interiors are designed to be inviting and comfortable for reading,
listening, viewing, and studying. Special devices such as wheelchair ramps are
installed for the physically handicapped. Many public libraries are community
centres, with local artists showing their work, or community leaders giving talks. A
public library in the city has branch libraries and bookmobiles.
For people in the country, there are books by mail, bookmobiles, book sleds,
book boats, book trains, and even book planes. Talking books and the record
players to use them are sent to the blind. So are magazines and books in Braille, as
well as books with large type for people with poor eyesight. Libraries reach out to
help deaf, sick, poor, and forgotten people. A library in ancient Egypt was called
The Healing Place of the Soul. That goes a long way towards explaining the
essence of a library.
The following is a vivid summary of the significance of the library:
1. Library is a busy workshop where persons of all ages can seek and acquire
knowledge.
2. A Library makes it possible for us to show the experiences of many other
persons by reading about their thoughts, ideals, feelings, opinions and
achievements.
3. The information sources in the holding of a library give us the ideas and
facts that have collected for thousands of years.
4. Libraries also provide up-to-date information in all fields with collections of
books, journals, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, photographs, records,
motion pictures and other Information Technology related databases.
5. The library has been described as the memory of the human race. It is like
a giant brain that remembers all that scientists, historians, poets,
philosophers and others have thought and learned.
6. It is a meeting place for the ideas and words of persons who have influenced
the human race and his world.
7. It also serves as a place where the experience of the past can meet the needs
of the present.
8. Libraries served us in our school work, as aid in our daily undertaking and
for pleasure in our leisure time just as young people learn to use the library
as part of their everyday school activities.
9. Libraries are one of the most conducive atmospheres for reading, studying
and researches.
10. The library is one element in the total communication system by which a
society is held together and a culture is created and maintained.4
REFERENCES
Harrod, L.M. (1971) The Librarians Glossary of Terms Used in Librarianship,
Documentation and the Book Crafts and Reference Book. 3rd rev. ed. London:
Andre Deutsch Limited.
Lacy, D. (1988) Library. Encyclopedia Americana. International Edition. Vol.
17. Connectus: Grolier Incorporated.
The World Book Encyclopedia (1964) Large Type Edition. Vol.5. Chicago: Field
Enterprises Educational Corporation.
CHAPTER SIX
THE BOOK AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Introduction
Right from the time when man started to live in a state of society as a
member of a group, the necessity for communication has arisen. This is for the
simple fact that man can hardly live in that state of society without interacting with
fellow group members. It was in an effort to fulfill this fundamental obligation that
the spoken language evolved as one of the earliest systems of communication
known to man. Through the spoken language then, all manners of information,
knowledge and experience on a variety of subject-matters varying from world
history, rituals, stories, prayers, medicine etc, were transmitted from generation to
generation. At this stage in history, the human memory was the only key
instrument for such storage and transmission necessities. But this obviously came
with its spectacular limitations.
For instance, at a point whereby oral tradition became too voluminous for
continuous and effective retention by human memory, there arose the serious
problem of loss of vital information. It was in an effort to arrest this unfortunate
situation that the written words (i.e the book) came as a form of insurance. This
was evident in the contents of early forms of books, which were mainly
collections of magic formulas, prayers and rituals, epics and sagas, dynastic
records, laws, accumulated medical experience and observations of the physical
universe.17 The realization that the spoken words could be represented by visual
symbols actually heralded the coming of the written language.
Earliest Forms of Writings
It is significant to note that the earliest forms of writings were largely crude
pictures carved on rocks, stones, bark, metal, clay or whatever materials were then
at hand. The three main antecedents of the earliest writings were the
pictographic, (representing an object); the ideographic, (representing the idea
suggested by the object) and finally the phonographic (indicating the sound of
the object or idea). With just a few survivors, vegetable, fiber, cloth, wood back,
animal skin, clay and metal were the major materials used then for crude picture
writing. In any case, their significance lies in the fact that they served as the
antecedents to the modern-day books as well as the other systems of writing.
Initially, single copies of a given text would be made, from which more
copies could be copied as the needs arose. A significant factor in the history of
Western culture was the phenomenal rate of increase in the ability to multiply a
text. Thus, in Classical Rome, it was possible within a relatively short time to
provide hundred copies of the new work of a popular author. Given the same
amount of time still, several thousand copies were produced using the early printer;
while in the Machine age, books were conveniently printed in millions of copies.
Today, books are seen and used almost everywhere serving either as familiar
friends or useful tools. This was in contrast to the earlier periods when only a very
few learned persons even saw or read books. No doubt, therefore, that the oldest
books were quite unlike our modern ones.19
Definition of a Book Attempted
Efforts at providing a definition of books may turn out to be an interesting
exercise even though it might not be as simple and straight forward as it may seem
at first. The fact that a book is composed of two major characteristic from which it
can be approached partly accounted for this; as much will depend on which of the
physical or functional perspective one has chosen to explain the concept. Taken
from the physical point of view, any object that is an assembly of leaves held
together along one of four edges and protected on front and back with a cover of
more durable materials,20 qualifies as a book. Thus, in this very loose sense, not
only a novel or a Bible but also a checkbook, ledger, or notebook can be referred to
as a book.
From the functional perspective, however, a book can be defined as a more
or less coherent body of graphic communication assembled into one or several
units for the purpose of systematic presentation and preservation of lastingly
valuable materials.21 This definition is highly instructive for its several functional
elements which include:
(i) The element of preservation
(ii) The element of retention of experiences, observations and creative
expressions of lasting value that distinguished the book from the variety
of more transitory communication.
Technically, a set of blank sheets of paper bound along one edge and
enclosed within protective covers to form a volume, especially a written or printed
literary composition presented in this way22 has been referred to as a book. At a
UNESCO conference in 1964, a book was defined as a non-periodical printed
publication of at least forty-nine pages, exclusion of cover pages.23 Thus, a book
is a division of a literary work, separately published with an independent physical
existence, whose pagination sometimes continued with other volumes. In ordinary
use, the word book means written or printed matter on paper leaves held together
and protected by a cover. The term is thus used for a variety of printed products.
The Importance of the Book
There is a unique value of the book to the healthy growth of a free and
enlightened democracy all over the world. This makes for the efforts to preserve
and to further the dignity and the beauty of the book in the modern world. Hence,
some of the specific values or importance of the book include:
1. Book serves as a vital and indispensible form of communication.
2. It serves primarily as the storehouse of facts and figures.
3. It represents beauty as a work of art in itself.
4. It is a means of transmitting spiritual values and ideas.
5. Reading it or random browsing through brings about some form of physical
joy.
6. It brings about a kind of informal, spontaneous and entirely voluntary
communication between author and reader.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A LIBRARY The Concept of a System
The Microsoft Encarta (2008) defines a system as a complex whole
formed from related parts: a combination of related parts organized into a complex
whole; set of principles: a scheme of ideas or principles by which something is
organized. Quite simply put, a system is a number of individual components of a
whole; all of which are expected to function together in order to achieve a
common, set goal(s). A good illustration of this is the Sound System; made up of
the Deck, Amplifier and Speaker(s); all the three components are quite essential to
the production of sound. This is to the extent that the lack of, or inadequate
functioning of one automatically affects the others; as all the components must be
in good and functioning conditions for a system to exist.
Even more explicit is the Human system, comprising such sub-systems as
the Digestive, Respiratory, Excretory, Nervous and Circulatory. However slight
the discomfort in one translates into same for the rest to the extent that these others
are as discomforted as the one that was directly affected. Thus, all the sub-
components of a system are not only interrelated but more importantly,
interdependent and indeed, interconnected. This is the typical conception of a
system.
The Library System
A typical library is composed of a number of departments, sections or units,
which include: Circulation, Technical, Reference, Serials, Media, Reserved and
Readers Services as the case may be from one library to the other; due to slight
variations existing in different types of libraries. As a system, library is a complex
of relations between people and information processes, within larger social,
economic and political systems. Systems are not synonyms with computers; in
librarianship, they are communication system of ideas interrelated with an
operational system using computers in its physical processes. In the systems
approach, information is essential; it is communicated by libraries, which "as the
medium for organization and transfer of information are society's work of art."
A library "is a group of things that have been brought together to provide
specific knowledge for the use of specific people to serve a specific purpose at a
specific point in time." It is defined as "an organized collection of the carriers of
knowledge." Organization is "both a way of referring to an ability to locate library
materials, and a way to show the interrelationships between them." Collection is
the basic concept in library work and its professionalism. Carriers define the
library's function as a knowledge store-house. Knowledge is the information
packaged into higher level of organization.
A library "is a group of things that have been brought together to provide
specific knowledge for the use of specific people to serve a specific purpose at a
specific point in time." "Libraries represent basic knowledge availability systems
that are far more than mere repositories for storing books. Changing library
designs over the past hundred years has reflected and been closely associated with
changing conceptions of the underlying rationality and order in knowledge. The
proliferation of new activities have led to the emergence of new professions and
disciplines whose main intellectual and practical responsibility is for management,
storage, and retrieval of bodies of knowledge in a formal, rather than a substantive
way. Instead of the earlier predominance of a substantive focus on the
classification and storing of relevant bodies of knowledge, these new disciplines
domains and techniques focus on structures of relevance, ways in which
information can be traced within bodies of knowledge, and ways of charting the
various channels of knowledge flow through social systems.
The ALA Glossary defines library science as "the knowledge, demands and
skills by which recorded information is selected, acquired, organized and utilized
in meeting the information needs of a community of users." Library science is a
study of the principles relating to the generation, collection, organization and
classification of information for storage and retrieval. Major responsibility is for
dissemination of all forms of information to appropriate audiences. Library science
is the knowledge and skill needed to recognize, collect, organize and utilize printed
records in terms of the patron need; collecting rather than accumulating,
organizing rather than arranging library materials. The library is defined as "an
organized collection of the carriers of knowledge."
Library science is an interdisciplinary science incorporating the humanities,
law and applied science to study topics relating to libraries, the collection,
organization, preservation and dissemination of information resources, and the
political economy of information. Historically, library science has also included
archival science. The distinction between a library and an archive is relatively
modern. This includes how information resources are organized to serve the needs
of select user groups, how people interact with classification systems and
technology, how information is acquired, evaluated and applied by people in and
outside of libraries as well as cross-culturally, how people are trained and educated
for careers in libraries, the ethics that guide library service and organization, the
legal status of libraries and information resources, and the applied science of
computer technology used in documentation and records management.
Academic courses in library science include Collection Management,
Information Systems and Technology, Cataloguing and Classification,
Preservation, Reference, Statistics and Management. Library science is constantly
evolving, incorporating new topics like Database Management, Information
Architecture and Knowledge Management. There is no generally agreed
distinction between library science, library and information science, and
librarianship. To a certain extent they can be considered equivalent terms, perhaps
adopted to increase the "science" aspect, or improve the popular image of
librarians.
The term Library and Information Science (LIS) is sometimes used; most
librarians consider it as only a terminological variation, intended to emphasize the
scientific and technical foundations of the subject, and its relationship with
information science. LIS should not be confused with information theory, the
mathematical study of the concept of information, or information science, a field
related to computer science and cognitive science. One operational view, implied
by some textbooks, is that librarianship means the professional aspects of work as
a librarian, such as certification, in-service training and issues of gender equality.
The ALA Glossary defines librarianship as "the profession concerned with the
application of knowledge of media and those principles, theories, techniques and
technologies which contribute to the establishment, preservation, organization, and
utilization of collections of library materials and to the dissemination of
information through media."
The Library and its Personnel
The typical library staff consists of three levels of employees: professional
librarians, support staff, and part-time assistants. The proportion of each of these in
any given institution depends on the type of library, its budget, and the types of
users it serves. Professional librarians usually constitute the smallest number of a
librarys employees. Most professional librarians have earned at least a masters
degree in library science or information science, the study of information and the
manner in which it is generated, recorded, stored, retrieved, transmitted, and used.
Some professional librarians have earned additional graduate degrees also.
Professional librarians require a wide range of skills and talents. They
must have solid bibliographic and technological skills, as well as strong
communication and interpersonal abilities. Advances in library technologies have
also led to a high demand for professional skills such as database searching and
competence in using the Internet and other computer networks and systems.
The librarian in charge of administering the entire institution is usually
referred to as the director. Other professional librarians typically administer the
librarys various departments. In small libraries, however, the director may be
solely responsible for managing all of the librarys departments. In addition to their
managerial work, professional librarians assume primary responsibility for
providing reference assistance, developing and managing the collections, and
overseeing cataloging.
Nonprofessional support staff commonly assume most of the responsibility
for directly serving library users. Their activities include essential functions such
as inputting, coding, and verifying bibliographic and other data; ordering library
materials; assisting with catalog development; performing circulation duties such
as checking out books to users; and performing other services vital to the librarys
daily operation.
Most libraries employ part-time staff members in addition to full-time
professional and support staff. Part-time staff members typically shelve books,
perform low-level clerical duties, and carry out other relatively simple but essential
tasks. In academic libraries, large numbers of part-time student-assistants play a
critical role in the day-to-day functioning of the library. Public libraries also hire
so-called library pages to help perform tasks that require no professional training,
such as shelving books and periodicals. In addition, many public libraries make
use of community volunteers to assist library staff in simple tasks. Many
professional librarians were first attracted to the profession while they were
working as library assistants, pages, or volunteers.
In small libraries, librarians might perform a range of tasks, with one or two
librarians and possibly a clerk handling all of the activities of the library. Because
of the small size of the staff, a single librarian might combine clerical and
professional tasks. In large libraries, the support staff have taken on many of the
tasks previously performed by professionals. Much of this transfer of responsibility
has been made possible by the introduction of relatively simple and efficient
computer technology, which has permitted support staff to accomplish large
portions of cataloging that were once done by professionals.
Additionally, while professional librarians usually manage library functions
such as circulation and acquisition, support staff or part-time workers often
perform the bulk of the actual tasks in these departments. The patterns of library
staffing vary from country to country. In general, libraries in more developed
countries distinguish clearly between the tasks done by professional and
nonprofessional staff. In less developed countries, the smaller size of staffs and a
lack of new, efficient computer technology have made this separation more
difficult.
Library assistants or technicians might do any of the following: shelving (in the absence of shelvers), circulation duties (check in, check out, supervision), derived cataloguing, programming, ordering, answering ready reference questions or materials processing. Librarians might do any of the following professional
tasks: book selection, original cataloguing, making library policy, evaluating performance of others, answering more complex reference questions, or dealing with the complaints and concerns of patrons. Librarians may do nonprofessional tasks in the absence of technicians and shelvers. Library technicians and assistants may do professional tasks in the absence of professional staff. A library is more than a place, more than books and films and records. Basically a library is a gathering of ideas, of information-put in order and shared. Thus, most libraries are not run by librarians alone. If it were not for other
library workers, in many places a person could not get a library card, find a
clipping in the vertical file, use a microfilm reader, or take out a book. On any
given day, one person may return half a dozen books, a magazine or two, and
several records to the library. Multiply that by several hundred or several thousand
and the result is a mountain of materials that must be sorted and put back in the
right place. This is usually the work of a library page. Sorting and shelving are also
done by temporary student employees, or student assistants. Pages have to be
accurate-a book or magazine or record misplaced is as good as lost for days,
weeks, or months.
Library clerks work out in front or behind the scenes. A clerk who deals
with the public may help a youngster register for a library card; check materials in
and out, collect overdue fines, help renew or reserve materials, or show someone
how to operate a copying machine. A copying machine or charge-out machine can
be mastered in a matter of minutes. What can't be mastered as easily is a pleasant
attitude toward all people, springing from a desire to help them. Such an attitude is
a must for all library people dealing with the public.
A clerk who prefers to work behind the scenes may file and keep records,
check in new materials and get them ready for use, type overdue notices in
libraries where this isn't done by computer, operate a teletype, feed a computer the
information needed to order a book or record or film. Both out-front and behind-
the- scenes clerks need a high school diploma usually, or the ability to pass a civil
service exam. All clerks work under the supervision of a librarian or library aide,
and student assistants often do clerical work.
Library aides assist with many of the librarian's jobs. A library aide
dealing with the public may help people find materials, answer easier reference
questions, explain the library's services. Behind-the-scenes aides may operate
audiovisual equipment, arrange displays, keep up the vertical file, look up prices
and other information the librarian needs to order materials, supervise pages and
clerks. For supervising others, aides must be tactful, firm, and able to follow the
librarian's instructions as well as translate those instructions to others. A job as
library aide requires at least a high school diploma, and many who do such work
are library technicians, with two years of college. Aides who are college graduates
are sometimes called library associates. Often they and library technicians do the
more skilled types of library work.
Other library workers include audiovisual technicians to inspect and repair
the audiovisual hardware of a library, book repairers to mend and rebind books and
other materials, artists and photographers to prepare displays and public relations
materials, and maintenance workers to keep library buildings in good condition.
People with advanced training in related fields such as computer science and
accounting also work in libraries.
From the foregoing, it becomes obvious that without people, a library
would be a mere place, a warehouse. Above all it is people using a library who
make it come alive, but people are also needed to make a library work. Even the
computerized memory cells of the future could not function without library people;
namely: the professionals called librarians and the many who help them. Thus, in
conclusion, librarians are said to have many different faces such that a librarian in
a modern school may be called a media specialist. In a computerized business
library, the librarian may be called an information scientist, or documentalist.
There are children's librarians and young adult librarians in public libraries,
institutional librarians in hospital and prison libraries, university librarians in
university libraries. All librarians, whatever their work, have this in common: they
are members of a profession in the service of mankind- like teachers, like doctors.
Librarians also share knowledge and skills learned in college, in library school
after college, and on the job.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE DIFFERENT FEATURES OF THE LIBRARIAN
Introduction
A librarian does three main kinds of work: selecting materials for the
library, organizing them so that they will be easy to find and use and helping
people get materials or information they need. To select materials, a librarian finds
out what the library's users and potential users need. Rarely, if ever, can a library
afford to buy all materials needed. So the librarian must be an expert not only on
what materials are available but on which are more dependable, more useful to the
library than others. To make room for new materials, the librarian regularly
reviews the library collection, removing materials no longer useful. A good
collection offers many points of view on any given subject. An important part of
the librarian's job is to resist pressure from special groups who want to get rid of-or
add-materials because of the point of view.
The Librarian as a Generalist
If it were not arranged, if it did not have a catalog, a library would be a
trackless jungle of information. That is where the organizer of materials comes in.
This librarian examines every new book, record, film, or other item to determine
what it is about. After the librarian decides what the subject is and how the item is
related to other materials in the library, the item is catalogued, or described. Most
libraries use card catalogues, but some modern libraries use a book catalog made
and printed by computer.
Helping people get materials or information they need is circulation and
reference work. The librarian in charge of circulation supervises the use of all
materials. In many large libraries, this librarian works behind the scenes in a
private office. Clerks usually issue library cards, lend and receive materials, keep
records of materials borrowed, collect fines for materials that are overdue, and
even help people find materials they want. The way in which each such job is done
is determined by the librarian in charge. Much circulation work is automated in
libraries today-there are computerized systems to keep a record of materials lent
and returned, for instance.
Nobody knows all the answers. The librarian in reference pursues a deeper
wisdom-to understand all the questions. To learn what exactly the questioner is
trying to find out, a reference librarian must be an expert interviewer. The whole
point of reference work is personal assistance, either finding the answer or guiding
a person to it. The same question may call for different types of help-for people of
different ages and backgrounds, for example. Much reference work can be done by
phone.
The Librarian as a Specialist
The three main kinds of library work are part of every librarian's education.
But, as in other professions, many librarians become specialists. An acquisitions
librarian specializes in locating and ordering materials, a cataloger in organizing
materials, a reference librarian in helping people get information. In many school
and public libraries, there are media specialists and readers' advisers. A media
specialist is an expert on the use of all materials, both print and non-print. A
readers' adviser helps choose materials or prepares a special reading list for a
particular person. Readers' advisers in hospital and prison libraries practice
bibliotherapy, helping treat the sick, the disturbed, the downhearted with books
and other materials.
Public librarians may specialize by age group of user. A children's librarian
must know about such things as child behavior, what children study in school, non-
print materials and their uses, the teaching of reading, children's literature, and
how to tell a story. Guiding children in their reading is an important part of the
work. So are selecting materials, holding story hours, working with parents and
Parent-Teacher Associations, visiting nearby classrooms, teaching the use of the
library, and planning such special projects as Book Week.
A young adult librarian works with roughly the teenage group. Such a
librarian must know what young adults are like, what they study in school, what
they read and listen to and look at in their free time. It is especially important for a
librarian working with this age group to be outgoing, unflappable, imaginative, and
socially aware.
The young adult librarian selects materials, keeping up with ever-changing
teenage interests; acts as a readers' adviser; visits schools to talk about books and
other materials; and explains how to use a library. An important part of work with
young adults is planning programmes for them.
A public librarian may also specialize in the hard-to-reach, neglected, and
unserved. These include school dropouts, the elderly, the uneducated, ghetto
dwellers, the rural poor, and minorities. Many in such groups have reading
problems and are reluctant or unable to come to a library. If there is one ingredient
a librarian in such work needs above all, it is heart. To bring hope to the hopeless
and a feeling of belonging to the outcast, professionalism is not enough. Also
needed are initiative and imagination to draw such people to the library as well as
to take the library to the people. A contagious enthusiasm for books is a must. So
is a strong background in non-print materials because they draw many people in
such groups. The librarian should also know about the teaching of reading and the
use of easy-to-read materials for adults.
Many academic and research librarians are subject or language specialists.
Such librarians usually have special training in music, or African materials, or
Spanish and Portuguese literature, or the sciences, etc. Subject specialists are
found also in government libraries-archivists specializing in historical papers,
librarians specializing in law.
There are many